Generalcomments

Dear all,

Thank you all for visiting, reading and sharing the news with me on the Fukushima Appeal Blog. I’ve kept it running since February 2012. Unfortunately, I will need some break now to attend to some of my health issues.

I would like to thank this blog and its supporters for giving me an opportunity to become a part of the slowly awakening global community during this very important time of global change. I had zero knowledge of nuclear before the Fukushima disaster, and was and still am a just normal citizen. It’s been hard to see Japan becoming a criminal, immoral and authoritarian country since the Fukushima Disaster. So it’s been a huge awakening and healing process to have a platform to speak out instead of feeling powerless, angry and sad about it. With the new secret law that is going to be introduced in Japan soon, Japanese people will need more help than at any other time in its history from foreign bloggers, doctors and scientists. Please remember Fukushima. I hope that the more difficulties we may encounter, the stronger and connected we will become to fight against injustice and be able to act from our heart space. (Mia)

Monday, 30 April 2012

Seventy local governors from
different regions of Japan, including a few members of parliament, met on
April 28 in Tokyo to share information and experience in order
to support each other in moving towards a nuclear-free society.
In Japan, however much the government wants to, the nuclear power plants
can only be restarted if each local governor of the regionｓ where the
plants are located gives the go-ahead, so this meeting is very
significant step towards keeping Japan nuclear-free.

Saturday, 28 April 2012

After the Fukushima disaster in March last year, 53 out of 54 reactors
have stopped one by one for the safety check and haven’t restarted yet. The last one, Tomari nuclear plant in
Hokkaido is also going to stop at midnight on May 5. It’s going to be a historical moment of “Zero
Nuclear” for Japan since the first one started to work 45 years ago.

As it’s getting close to it, the group of
nuclear power including the Japanese government have been making effort of
restarting the others, especially Oi nuclear plant in Fukui prefecture. They say it won’t be enough electricity
otherwise. We heard it last year when
there was enough electricity. They say
they will decide on political reasons.
However they can’t prove the nuclear in Japan safe scientifically
because the investigation of Fukushima disaster hasn’t finished. They don’t know what happened and how the
explosion occurred after the big earthquake and tsunami. Therefore it’s
impossible to bring changes to make it safe.
The citizens in Fukushima
Prefecture were trapped and forced to live with a high radiation. It’s now very clear that the government
doesn’t save the citizens even the vulnerable children, instead they save Tepco
company.

With possible big earthquake in
the near future, if the government forces to restart the reactor, it’s for sure
it's not for the nation but for who and what?
So far the local government hasn’t given the go sign yet. Let’s hope they won’t. And we don’t think IAEA should interfere with
it if that’s true. With ongoing radiation problems with the Fukushima
plant, Japan won’t be able to survive another catastrophe.All of the
reactors are on the earthquake areas.
The land got even shakier since the disaster.There were seven of magnitude 5 or
more earthquakes occurred in the last 3 months in the east coast of Japan
according to the official website:

Thursday, 19 April 2012

22million tons of radioactive debris was
created by the big earthquake and tsunami in the northeast of Japan (inMiyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures) on
March 11 last year. The debris in Fukushima prefecture has been burnt in Fukushima
prefecture, but the Japanese government wants other areas (even Okinawa, in the
far south of Japan) to incinerate some of the debris from Miyagi and Iwate
Prefecture and bury the ash in those areas.

Although
the government has been saying it’s safe to do this, most people outside the
affected areas have been rejecting the plan because they know that the
contamination went well beyond Fukushima Prefecture.Although the radiation level in the debris is
relatively low, it gets concentrated into the ash when the debris is
incinerated and is also spread into the air during incineration. Also the government relaxed the
safety limit for radiation in debris up to 8,000 BQ/kg
from 100 BQ/kg in July, then further raised it to 10,000BQ/kg in October last year,
allowing normal incinerators to incinerateradioactive debris below 10,000BQ/kg in
the same way as normal material.

Although in the name of ‘speedy recovery’ the
government has been only asking for about 4 million tons (20%) of the total
amount to be incinerated in this way, they have been using big corporations
that have a cozy relationship with the government, and have been neglecting
the question of economic growth for Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures, which want to
incinerate all of the debris there to create job oporurtunies in those
regions. Furthermore the government has rejected their requests to build
a proper incinerator with a suitable filter for removing the radiation.According to a test report from an
incinerator using a bag filter in Shimada-city in Shizuoka prefecture; it’s
only 60% effective for removing cesium 137 when using the filter. In fact
there is no incinerator with a proper filter attached for
removing 100% cesium in the whole of Japan, so the amount of radiation
from the existing ones (particularly in Fukushima prefecture) has been
contributing to high levels of radioactive contamination in the air in the
affected areas.

The
government has invested a huge amount of money (23 million pounds) in publicity to try to persuade citizens to
agree with it about the issues of debris and decontamination. Isn’t that
crazy? It’s similar to the way in which thegovernment kept saying it was safe to eat
food from the contaminated areas after relaxing the safety level for radiation
in food, spending a huge amount of money on a misleading safety
campaign. Also they have been telling evacuees it will be safe for them
to return after decontamination work in theareas of high radiationin Fukushima, ignoring a report from
specialists in Belarus, saying that it’s a waste of money.

Getting
back to the issue of radioactive debris, I would like to remind you of what
Prof Arnie Gunderson, a nuclear engineer and energy adviser who has been involved in
designing, constructing, operating and decommissioning nuclear power plants in
the USA, suggested:

“It would be better to keep radioactive debris
near the plant rather than spreading it all over Japan. The strategy of downgrading and spreading it
out is less expensive in the short term, at least until the pits begin to leak,
but we should remember that the radiation will continue to be emitted for hundreds
ofyears, so, while the likelihood of the pits
leaking may not be much this year, it will become significant
and severe in the future.”

I think the government should listen to the
voices of the nation and not take the wrong course of action in the name of
helping the affected areas to recover.People
aware of the facts have been saying to the government that the best way of
supporting the affected areas is to accept the children in Fukushima but not
the radioactive debris, and that it is essential to keep the western part of
Japan radiation free for growing as muchfood as possible.

If the government can spend 23
million pounds on publicity, they should spend it on evacuating children from
Fukushima Prefecture, or at least on arranging for them to visit radiation-free
areas regularly to recuperate and on giving them more regular health check-ups.I bet there would still beenough money tobuild a new incinerator with a suitable
filter attached in Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures to incinerate all
the debris as safely as possible.Without a proper filter, it’s just going to accumulate even more
radiation in the air.It’s bad enough
already in Fukushima where the citizens including children are forced to live
up to 20mSv/y.

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

After a tour of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear facilities this month, U.S. senator Ron Wyden has urged the Japanese
Government to urgently seek international assistance to relocate spent fuel
rods stored precariously in unsound structures close to the ocean and prevent
more deadly nuclear radiation being released into the environment..........

Ambassador Murata informed us that the total numbers of the spent fuel
rods at the Fukushima Daiichi site excluding the rods in the pressure
vessel is 11,421 (396+615+566+1,535+994+940+6375).

Based on U.S. Energy Department data, assuming a total of 11,138 spent
fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all, which
is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19 Bq) of
long-lived radioactivity. About 134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP)................

Many of our readers might find it difficult to appreciate the actual
meaning of the figure, yet we can grasp what 85 times more Cesium-137
than the Chernobyl would mean. It would destroy the world environment
and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to
the pugilistic debate over nuclear power plants. This is an issue of
human survival.

Friday, 13 April 2012

Japan's former Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4 — with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground — collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4.

In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel; dangerously, they are open to the air.

The greatest single threat to humanity

This
would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before
experienced. He stressed that the responsibility of Japan to the rest of
the world is immeasurable. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for
centuries.

Sunday, 8 April 2012

Victims of ionizing radiation
are to be found not just in Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Chernobyl and Fukushima but
also in Fallujah in Iraq．Between 2004-
2010, the US Army bombed Iraq using Depleted Uranium (=DU), concentrated
in Fallujah. UK also admitted ｕｓｉｎｇ DU in bombs in
Iraq..

Prof. Christopher Busby, scientific
secretary to the European committee on Radiation Risks has investigated the
effect of such bombs. He organized an
investigation team who interviewed people about their experience after the
bombs by knocking on their doors. He also checked 52 different elements
such as strontium, cesium, copper, etc. in samples of soil and residents’ hair
taken in Fallujah, and found that uranium is the cause of deformed babies,
cancer and leukemia in Fallujah. He mentioned that the study shows the
highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied, even Hiroshima. According to the information in this
video, 2 to 3 deformed babies are nowborn every dayin Fallujah, sadly to live only for a few hours.------------------------------------------------------------------

I haven’t heard any
news of deformed babies being born in Japan after the Fukushima disaster. Why not? Medical technology is more advanced
in Japan
than in Iraq, and all pregnant women in Japan receive an ultrasound exam to
check if the baby is normal or not. If they find it’s abnormal, it’s
usually suggested that they have an abortion, which is acceptable under the
Eugenic Protection Act(which went into effect in 1948, three years after the Hiroshima/Nagasaki
bombs, then changed its name to the Maternal Protection act in 1996), and the numbers
of deformed unborn babies have never been made public, which is very convenient
for those who support nuclear power.

*Depleted Uranium is a
by-product of nuclear waste. It has a
higher concentration of Uranium 238 than natural uranium and has a half-life of
4,468 billion years! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-238)

Evacuation

In Fukushima there was 2 million population including 360,000 children.

The Japanese government evacuated about 100,000 (87,000 out of 20km radios of the plant), and most of them are still in Fukushima prefecture. 65% of Fukushima prefecture became the radiation control area (a level of the contamination is more than 37,000Bq/m2), so therefore most of them are still in radioactively contaminated area unless they evacuated out of Fukushima prefecture into safe area voluntarily without any financial help from the government. Voluntary evacuees within Fukushima prefecture is 23,551, voluntary evacuees out of Fukushima prefecture is 27,776 as of 22/9/11. Even Fukushima-city which is 50km away from the plant is no longer safe, especially for children. The government statistics shows that only about 36,000(including about 20,000children, ) left Fukushima prefecture. And most of them left Fukushima Prefecture voluntarily without any financial support from the government.(October 2012)

Food Safaty

Amount of allowable ionizing radiation in foodincluding rice in Japan is now 100BQ/kg for cesium.

So this could mean that contaminated food which they can’t sell in Japan could be exported to the countries that have more relaxed regulations, such as EU countries and Thai (500) and Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippine, Vietnam, Malaysia (1000) and USA (1200).

*A Woman Who Refuses to Give In to A New Nuke PlantPlease send her a postcard: Atsuko Ogasawara, owner of “Asako House”, built in the center of the planned Ohma Nuclear Power Plant premises. She would appreciate it if you could send a post card (just with a few words is ok). Receiving a mail as much as possible helps her position to keep up anti nuclear campaign. Here is “Asako House”’s address: Ms. Atsuko Ogasawara, c/o Asako House, 396 Aza Ko-okoppe, Oh-aza Ohma, Ohma Machi, Shimokita Gun, Aomori

ＧＥＮＥＲＡＬ ＩＮＦＯＲＭＡＴＩＯＮ

Fukushima disaster is not over. It seems getting worse. Continuous leaking of ionizing radiation into the atmosphere (10million Bq/hour or more) and into the sea.. There seems no end and no solution to stop it. There is no good result in decontamination work. 27 children developed thyroid cancer. More reports of deformed babies. More people of dying of leukemia and sudden death.… Yet the Japanese Government wants all evacuees to go back to their home land by 2020. Even trying to sell nuclear to other countries, claiming it’s going to be safe. I hope information from this blog to give you views from the victim’s side of stories, health issues and related information on nuclear disaster, especially about Fukushima disaster. We should remember and learn lessons from ongoing tragedy happening in Chernobyl and Fukushima.

100% nuclear free: Japan shut down its last reactor on 15/9/13 – There has been no shortage of electricity since 3.11

*IAEA ＆ WHO downplays the danger of radiation. (Refer to the comment on Feb.2012)

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant up date news

(October 10, 2012)

The Fukushima disaster is far from over, with 10million BQ every hour of ionizing radiation (80% is coming out of reactor 2) leaking continuously into the air (as of October, 2012). No human can get near to the reactors. Even robot can only stay a couple of hours. Reactor 4 is still the most worrying, with 1535 spent fuel rods in the pool. A further6, 375 spent fuel rods are stored in a shared pool only 50 meters away from the Reactor 4. After the disaster, the maximum allowable dose of ionized radiation was raised to 250mSv/yfrom 100 mSv/y for Tepco workers (3000 workers every day) until the situation is restored to normal. Because of the dangerously high level of ionized radiation at the site, they can only work for a limited time, which makes progress slow, and more and more workers have been exposed to the maximum radiation, which means that it could be difficult to find enough people to work there continuously during the next at least 40 years work of decommissioning.

Nobody knows how and when we will be able to say that the Fukushima disaster is over.